POP GOES THE WORLD By Jenny Ortuoste for Manila Standard-Today, 5 December 2013, Thursday

Go home, Anne, you’re drunk

There’s a meme that’s been going around the Internet for some time – “Go home, (insert name here), you’re drunk.”

Knowyourmeme.com says the expression is “used to point out someone else’s failure” and, “prior to its appearance in image macros,” advised “someone against over-drinking” or to “scold him or her for losing self-control.”

Lately it’s being used as a comment in reaction to something that someone disagrees with, or that’s odd, awkward and strange.

The phrase can literally apply to the much-ballyhooed public meltdown of an actress at an upscale nightspot. Anne Curtis slapped actor John Lloyd Cruz and called him an “addict” last November 22 at Prive Bar at The Fort.

Curtis also cracked Circuit magazine editor JR Isaac one across the face, as well as Leah de Guzman, their friend.

Not content with physically assaulting three people, Curtis also shouted at television presenter Phoemela Barranda, saying “I can buy you, your friends, and this club.”

She reportedly engaged in a verbal brawl that lasted nearly an hour until she was led out of the bar.

Curtis herself acknowledges the incident did occur, and that she apologized to the persons involved for her hurtful and uncalled-for actions. She claimed that she had been undergoing a juice cleanse for days.

Isaac elsewhere said that while he has forgiven Curtis, he was shocked by her behavior and commented “Your basic character shows when you are intoxicated.”

Can Curtis move on from this? She has said she will no longer discuss the matter as she has said her ‘sorrys’ and presumably learned her lesson. But will the public forget? Will it change her fans’ perception of her?

It is certainly disappointing when someone of her popularity displays a horrid face that is in sharp contrast to the winsome and good-girl image she projects. What a disappointment to find out the arrogance with which she treated her fellow celebs.

To say that she can buy people and the establishment they were in is to show an appalling lack of compassion and an unbridled disdain for others. How much less does she think then of the ordinary folk who watch her shows when her own colleagues, people as wealthy and popular as she is, are beneath her contempt?

Nor should she claim drunkenness nor the “juice cleanse” for her words and actions because in vino veritas, as they say.

It might be true that she is awash in cash now. (That boast should be a red flag to the tax bureau. Calling Commissioner Henares.) But how many rich people have found themselves reduced to ragamuffins through twists of fate and circumstance?

The incident also spawned many Internet memes that poked fun at Curtis’s bragging. One shows her on the left side of the image with her now-infamous quote on the bottom; the right side shows Jeane Napoles in her pink bandage dress, saying, “Yan lang!? Mommy, pakibili nga si Anne Curtis.” The Napoleses were perhaps even wealthier than Curtis, but look where they are now. Pride goeth before a fall.

Perhaps Curtis hasn’t learned yet that fame is ephemeral. Pretty faces are common in the showbiz industry; talent perhaps less so, but the Filipino public is accommodating and a winning demeanor and charm often make up for lack of skill.

Public affection is fickle and can shift, and once another beautiful actress is given the breaks and opportunities that Curtis was, she can be toppled from her present perch and the present flood of money will slow down to a trickle, as countless other stars have realized to their profound dismay.

Curtis can count on time to soften the impact of her tipsy tirade. When the next scandal hits the front pages, the public will forget this one and fasten on that. And the next one after that. They’ll chalk this one up to the antics of the rich, young, and famous.

The Internet always remembers, though, and it has taken its own swift and humorous vengeance. It has already ridiculed and mocked her in memes.